About Sara
Sara Lowes is a textile artist whose practice explores sustainable techniques across cultures and time to repurpose old fabrics and transform them into contemporary textiles that hold stories and meaning in the form of quilts, garments, costume and textile pieces. Giving discarded fabrics a new life, purpose and longevity.
Textile Fragments
Throughout my life, I've kept boxes of textile fragments, my way of recording the tapestry of my own story. Growing up in Kenya, movement and cloth were deeply intertwined for me. I loved to dance, and a family friend — dancer and teacher — introduced me to the transformative world of costume and performance. On and off stage I was surrounded by swathes of silk, tulle and colorful cottons that could shift the feeling of a body entirely; handmade costumes that offered imagination, play, and a sense of becoming.
Earliest memories
Some of my earliest memories are also tied to the landscape of the Maasai Mara. I remember evenings around the fire, sharing food with Maasai communities, and the beauty of the traditional shúkà cloth wrapped around them - the bold colour against the landscape, the texture and pattern of the fabric, the scent of smoke carried within it. Those memories stayed with me, shaping an early awareness of textiles as something deeply connected to identity, land, storytelling, and belonging.
Sharing stories through cloth
Textiles have forever brought my world to life. They have held me through childhood imaginings and life transitions, and taught me the wisdom of distant places. They showed me that objects are never just objects ~ they are memory made tangible, connection made visible.
Now, when textiles have become cheap and throwaway, I'm driven to bring their stories back. I want to remind people that textiles begin in the earth: we grow them, dye them, wear them, make stories with them.
I enjoy shining a light on the beauty of things that might otherwise be disregarded ~ putting a frame around it to ask: what could this become? How can we mend it, transform it, make it useful and meaningful again - give it a new life and soul - together.
What could be more rewarding?